The field of the invention is wireless biosensor devices. More particularly, the invention relates to wireless biosensor devices that include a fastening clip for mounting the wireless biosensor within a subject.
Although in vivo wireless biosensors were first deployed for wireless pH monitoring in the 1990's, the ultimate impact of these devices on the medical community has only been marginal. Because prior electronics, radio, and energy storage technologies were relatively inefficient, existing wireless biosensors tend to be large devices with simple communications capabilities and are not generally preferred over traditional medical equipment. Advances in microelectronics and telecommunications over the past two decades have ushered in an era of small, self-contained electronic devices with the capability for sensing, computing, and wireless communication. The market-driven need for increased complexity, functionality, and interoperability, as well as the decreased size and cost of wireless devices, has recently led to a series of technological developments aimed at creating entire systems contained in a few, or even a single CMOS chip. This theme of convergence has created miniature devices with the functionality needed to create a new breed of wireless biosensors with the small size, intelligence, and autonomy needed for practical medical applications.
Advances in electronics have recently led to wearable, implantable, and ingestible sensor devices that are commercially available. The technology presents one opportunity to begin providing a realistic alternative to traditional medical procedures that can be relatively costly, invasive, uncomfortable, and time-consuming. By simplifying the procedures for monitoring, diagnostics, and testing, while providing continuous access to patient data, these biosensor devices stand to revolutionize the medical industry in the near future.
The physical size of recently developed biosensor devices limits their potential applications. Some of the smallest devices created, for example, having a minimum dimension of approximately 1 cm, have been used to image the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Such devices, however, are only capable of a one-time recording of the state of the GI tract, because they pass through the GI tract in a relatively short time period. The devices cannot be fixed to monitor a specific area over a longer period of time of days or weeks, and are primarily used for diagnosing the general health of the GI tract, rather than monitoring a specific condition at a particular locality of the GI tract.
Fixing the location of a sensor is difficult for sensors in the GI tract. As such, in many cases, doctors return to traditional endoscopy to monitor the GI tract, which allows easy access to the GI tract for observation and tests, and surgery. Although some sensors are configured to be mounted to the GI lining, their mounting mechanisms generally require puncturing of the GI lining, preventing the devices from being used to monitor sensitive areas, such as gastric ulcers or other internal wounds.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sensor system that allows for monitoring of an internal region of a subject over an extended period of time.